


A SINGLE ACT OF COMPASSION

by vanhunks



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-26
Updated: 2015-06-26
Packaged: 2018-04-06 07:37:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4213443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanhunks/pseuds/vanhunks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One of the crew of Voyager has been killed. Captain Janeway questions Noah Lessing about Seven's death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A SINGLE ACT OF COMPASSION

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Paramount owns the Voyager and the characters. No copyright infringement is intended.
> 
> Written as a challenge, kill off 7/9.

When the door to her ready room chimed, Kathryn Janeway didn't bother to look up from the PADD she was studying when she said "Enter" peremptorily. There was a pause after the doors slid close. Slow, heavy steps sounded until they stopped. A shadow fell over the PADD. 

"Move away," she muttered in mild irritation, motioning with one hand. The shadow moved to the left. "That's better."

She continued to keep her eyes on the PADD until she heard a cough, a clearing of the throat, scraping  
of feet.

"You called for me, Captain."

"I called you two minutes ago. You made it from the mess hall to the ready room in two minutes? What did you do...fly?"

"You called, Captain, and I came flying."

Only then Captain Janeway looked at the crewman. She had to crane her neck; she heard a little crick, then decided to stand. She still craned her neck as she tried to see the crewman's face.

"Crewman Lessing, why are you so tall?"

"My father was taller, Captain. At 2.2m in his socks. We are from the ancient Maasai tribe of Africa. They - "

"Are very tall, yes. Sit down then. I'll feel better."

"Thank you," said Noah, carefully lowering his large frame on the too small chair. 

There was a long silence. Noah Lessing fidgeted nervously. His eyes shifted. Golden, liquid brown puppy dog eyes. Her own gaze didn't waver, and when he finally had to look at her again, it was as if he flinched. Kathryn Janeway's lips pursed. Then she gave a long drawn out sigh.

"I am not going to kill you, Crewman Lessing."

Captain Janeway almost did kill Lessing once before, and then Chakotay had been at her throat and conscience after that. Noah didn't look convinced, especially as he flinched again when she suddenly leaned forward and rested her elbows on the desk top.

"I...guess not, Captain. But you have every reason to kill me now. I know it was wrong of me. I should never have done it. I expect to be crushed to death."

"What?!"

"Aye, Captain. By the women on the ship."

"What?"

"See, Captain, I committed a crime. I expect to be humiliated to death by the women of Voyager. The Maasai tribe has spoken."

"Halt! The Maasai tribe has not spoken, Lessing. And, your fate will be decided according to Federation laws." 

"Then I am happy, sir. It is very humiliating to have women walk all over you while you lie on the ground and they think you are a carpet."

"Shut up, Lessing."

"Captain?"

"You are here because I called you here."

"I know that, Captain, sir!"

His eyes looked so completely sad that Captain Janeway debated whether to continue questioning him. But one of her senior crew was gone and Noah Lessing was responsible for her disappearance. The women of Voyager jumped for joy. She doubted whether they would crush Noah to death. They were ready to kiss him if they could reach his face. Tuvok hadn't bothered to do a full investigation. Chakotay told the Captain brusquely that it was her task to question the crewman about the unfortunate incident in which Seven of Nine, formerly Annika Hansen, formerly Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01 had met her ill-fated, but according to the whisperings of the crew, timely demise. 

That Noah Lessing was responsible for the incident had come as a surprise to Captain Janeway. The crewman always tried to blend into the bulkheads since the time she herself had threatened to kill him. Then he had killed aliens aboard his own vessel, the Equinox. Now, it was Seven of Nine. A life was a life. That was the way of the Federation. Noah was permanently terrified of the captain, no matter how hard she tried to wipe the slate clean with him. Her threat to kill him had scarred him for life, it seemed. Now he stared at her with doleful, frightened eyes. 

"Now, Noah. Commander Chakotay has informed me that you admitted to killing Seven of Nine."

"I will gladly die as punishment for my crime."

"You will serve time in the brig, make no mistake, Lessing. But I want to know why you did it."

Noah looked down, wrung his enormous hands together and didn't look up again. The captain wondered if there would ever be levity between herself and this giant of a man. 

"Can't tell you that, Captain," Noah muttered, still not looking up.

"You will, because I am the captain and I order you to tell me!"

"Sorry, Captain. It is too humiliating to say."

"Lessing, shall I get the women on the ship to walk all over you and crush you to death right here on the bridge where every other member of the crew except Naomi Wildman can witness your humiliation?"

Noah's head hung. His hands wrung. Suddenly the hanging and the wringing stopped. He looked directly at the captain. This was the moment he decided to tackle the antelope by the horns. He must have had a magnificent male impala in mind, because his eyes suddenly changed from liquid brown to fire in the furnace. The impala had impressive antlers that curled and twirled and Noah's fingers were gripping those antlers and hanging on for dear life. He had finally crossed the bridge of courage with a low fear factor. As if a large weight rolled off his shoulder, Noah Lessing let out a sigh. His eyes became a challenge. Captain Janeway met the challenge. 

"Captain, I did it for you."

"What?" 

Captain Janeway couldn't hide her surprise, though in retrospect she had detected an air of relief among the crew. They appeared more jovial, far more relaxed with Seven of Nine gone. In truth,  
the captain felt a measure of relief too. So it was that she couldn't show him she was glad. It was important to keep a straight face and consider his murder of the hapless Borg in a serious light. 

"I did it for you and Commander Chakotay."

"Noah, you know the Commander and I had nothing to fear from Seven of Nine. We are married now. Seven has made her peace with - "

"No! She hasn't! She - " It was as if Noah gripped the impala's antlers much tighter. 

"What, Noah?" Kathryn's voice sounded thin and a little edgy. Noah looked like he'd better answer her as speedily as possible and not be road kill for the women of Voyager's tribe. He also looked like his tongue had loosened finally. The man was going to roll to high heaven telling the captain everything she wanted to know. 

"She was plotting to kill you, Captain. I couldn't let her do that, Captain, sir. She was a silent menace. Wouldn't let go of the Commander. I told her the Commander was a happily married man, that his wife the captain was the picture of married bliss. I told her it was immoral to come between a man and his beloved wife and make trouble for them. You love the Commander with your whole life, Captain, and the Commander loves you. Seven of Nine wouldn't listen to me. She carried a picture of Commander Chakotay...here," Noah said bluntly, slapping a palm against his chest. "I don't mean her heart, Captain, if you know what I mean. Her - her udder, the left one, right on her - "

The Captain's hand went up to stem the flow of Noah's outpouring.

"I get the...picture."

"She still wanted Commander Chakotay. Said she was going to seduce him and get pregnant, so you would leave the Commander alone. I asked her how she was going to do that, the Commander already being safely ensconced elsewhere, and by law too. She said she was just going to do it. One day we'll all be sitting in the messhall when she would pronounce that she and the Commander...er..."

"What, Noah?" Captain Janeway asked, seeing how the crewman turned his face away from her in embarrassment."

"I didn't know that Seven of Nine could use such ugly words for the act of lovemaking. I guess she is really human now."

"I...see."

"I don't think you understand, Captain Janeway. Seven of Nine er..." Noah cleared his throat furiously, looking this way and that way.

"Noah!"

"Captain!"

"Tell me. I'll not die here of shame - "

"I didn't think you would, Captain. But...uh...Seven of Nine saw you."

Captain Janeway's eyes narrowed. When the narrowing stopped, her face turned a little red. She coughed and cleared her throat, looked this way and that way. 

"Where...?" she asked in a thin voice.

"When she came out of the holodeck I thought she was going to be sick. She stood there and she started heaving her mighty bosom. I didn't want to touch her, not on her bosom anyway. But I asked if she saw a ghost."

"She was in the holodeck when Commander Chakotay and I - ?"

"Aye, Captain. It's not my place to describe to you what Seven of Nine described to me about what you and Commander Chakotay were doing, 'cept that she used a few ugly words for sex, but I told her - "

"Told her what?"

"Now you know, Annika Hansen. You can never come between those two. That's what I told her. You are forever joined. Right, Captain?"

"And so she threatened to do something about what she saw. She wasn't going to give up. Is that what you're telling me?"

"I couldn't let that happen. I admire my captain too much. In fact, I love my captain, if you know what I mean. So I told Seven if she tried to touch a hair on your head, or even looked at you with a glint in her eye, or came within a parsec of the Commander, or break into the holodeck again while you and the Commander make... Well, I told her I'd come and kill her in her sleep."

"You would kill?"

"I did plenty of that on the Equinox. But as you know, that was for all the wrong reasons. I paid the price. It was morally and ethically reprehensible killing innocent life forms."

"And Killing Seven of Nine was for the right reasons? It's not morally and ethically...reprehensible?"

"I thought I'd help her out of her childish obsession and dangerous intentions in the most compassionate way possible."

"And those were the right reasons? Noah, there are no right reasons to take a life - "

"But you do not understand, Captain. She gave me no option."

"She threatened to kill you instead?"

"Captain, look at me. I am the tallest man on the ship. Two metres in my socks. Even Commander Chakotay doesn't reach my chin. Seven of Nine told Susan Nicoletti who told Chell that if she couldn't get the Commander, she'd make certain that the Captain couldn't get him either. It didn't matter that the captain already had the Commander. She was mad as a hatter, that one. So I helped her."

By this time, Captain Janeway was highly amused by Noah's narration. She leaned further forward, all eyes and ears. She would enter into the Captain's logs what needed to be entered, but she was going to listen to the suddenly loose-of-tongue Noah Lessing, tallest crewman on the vessel, of the ancient Maasai tribe of Africa. 

"How on earth did you help her? Seven of Nine is dead, Lessing."

"I told her she could take me on instead. What do you know? The Borg agreed. There was suddenly a different light in her eyes. She looked like she would eat me alive. She was the hunter, I was the game. She would fight me. If she beat me, then I would have no option but to become the new object of Seven of Nine's affection. She said she was looking forward to removing my antlers."

"You would be beaten by Seven so she could...bed you?"

"Naturally, I wasn't planning on getting beaten or bedded."

"So you killed her in self-defense."

"Aye, Captain. Only thing is, she brought it on herself. It was the most humane thing to do..."

"What was that, Noah Lessing?"

"See, we were fighting in the cargo bay, in the area of the regeneration chambers. When she slipped from my grasp, she opened the airlock herself, thinking she could eject me. She was playing dirty. Kicked me in the...groin; I doubled over... I was going to join the Maasai spirits soon."

"And there she went."

"Aye, Captain. When she opened the airlock, I was prepared. I thank my father for being from the ancient Maasai, giving me this bulk and height, Captain. Else I would have been a goner. I could hold fast on to a jutting handle attached to the bulkhead. The stupid Borg miscalculated for the first time in her Borg life, and she found herself being sucked out. She tried hanging on with her long fingers. She was quite getting the hang of it too. Then it happened."

Kathryn had forgotten the PADD, forgotten the meeting with senior staff in two minutes' time, forgotten that she should lock Noah in the brig for the rest of their journey and let the Federation deal with him when they got home. 

"She lost her grip?"

"No, Captain. She lost her two monuments."

"Her m-monuments?"

"Aye, those very bazooms that got in everyone's way. The things got plucked clean off her bosom like periwinkles from a rock. The woman screamed that she couldn't lose her monuments, that Commander Chakotay still had to look at them, she was so obsessed."

"Oh, my goodness!"

"Aye. She wanted to go after her two monuments. They floated away in space like two planets moving slowly to the tune of Dancing in the Dark. I guess no one knew that one bazoom was larger than the other. " 

"Hell, Lessing,"

"Or that one udder had five nipples."

"Lessing!"

"Aye, Captain. You said we each make our own hell. I made mine. You made yours, and Seven of Nine made hers. She loved those monuments."

"What are you saying?"

"She was so worried about her mammaries that floated away from her that I felt sorry and forgot all about our fight. Then I told her I could help her. I would have beaten her anyway. Only thing is, she was using them mammaries as torpedoes."

"Noah, I'm losing the thread of the logic here. You were hanging for dear life by your fingers too. How could you even assist her?"

"I twisted my body, hooked my feet where my fingers were and then I helped Seven."

"You helped Seven? Seven is dead. How could you have helped her?"

"I reunited her with her loved ones."

"What?"

"Captain, it was an act of compassion. I prised her fingers from the door so she could be reunited with her mammaries. As I said, Captain, it was an act of compassion."

"That will be all, Lieutenant Lessing."

"C-Captain?" Lessing stammered, his eyes turning into saucers.

"For saving the ship... You deserve your promotion, young man."

** 

END


End file.
